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METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, Issue 22 December 26, 2000 Thank you for being part of the Metaforix Mail community of subscribers. All best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive New Year. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: ON MY MIND: Y2K's
Greatest Hits
ON MY MIND [From the Editor] An Info Maven's Idiosyncratic Favorites We have just about survived the first year of the new millenium -- or, if you prefer, the last year of the old one. For most of us, the Y2K bug is a distant memory and Carnivore hasn't consumed all electronic traces of our identities, at least not yet.Other journalists' annual "greatest hits" columns are necessarily limited to movies or books or tech toys. As an info maven, however, I feel no such constraints. Herewith, an idiosyncratic list of my favorite discoveries of the year 2000: Books about the Information Age: The Social Life of Information, by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. In a thoughtful and wide-ranging set of essays, the authors remind us that information must be seen in its social and cultural contexts, not simply its technological ones. Since I'm always reminding audiences and clients that the Internet is about culture, not technology, I'm thrilled to have such authoritative support for my point of view. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. Using the concepts of epidemiology, this book explores how "ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Gladwell is a graceful and engaging writer who distills the essence of scientific studies into clear, compelling prose. Online cartoon strip: "One Hundred Demons" (www.salon.com/mwt/comics/barry/), by Lynda Barry. Twice a month, Salon.com's "Mothers Who Think" channel features Barry's funky, colorful, and mordantly funny insights. What I love best about her work is that Barry's child's-eye view and her adult perspective are both always in evidence, always at odds. Site for doodling: Kaleidoscope Painter (www.bol.ucla.edu/~permadi/java/spaint/). Visit this site to create gorgeous kaleidoscopic images in sumptuous colors, just by moving your mouse. If you are feeling exceptionally lazy, set the "auto" control and just watch the images unfold. Search engine: Google (www.google.com). I know Google is not new. I've just rediscovered how much I love it. Google and I had a brief fling a while ago, until I abandoned it to play the ever-expandingfield. Now I'm back, with a renewed appreciation for Google's speed, clean interface, and continual innovation. Print magazine online: The Atlantic Unbound (www.theatlantic.com). "Bound since 1857," as the site says, and "unbound since 1993," The Atlantic Monthly is as literary as ever online and twice as much fun. The complete contents of each issue are supplemented by multimedia, Web-only features, and archives that are comprehensive from 1995 onward and slowly working their way backward. Broadcast station online: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/). The BBC's take on the world has a distinctly British accent. Its news coverage, use of language, and sense of humor can usually be understood by Americans seeking a break from our homogenous homegrown media. Sumptuous images: The Louvre Museum (www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm). Museum sites are among my favorite Web destinations, so this one is a tough call. But I love the panoramic views of the Louvre's architecture and its galleries, along with the many images from its collections. Glorious sounds: National Public Radio (www.npr.org/programs/music/html): From classical to jazz to folk and more, NPR is one of many wonderful sites for listenting to great music. Word game: Magnetic Poetry (www.magneticpoetry.com). Dave Kapell's Magnetic Poetry Kit has been available for years at your local gift shop or bookseller's and on a refrigerator door near you. Now you can also indulge your muse online. When I visited the site while at a conference last summer, a dozen colleagues immediately asked for the URL. It's great fun. I could, of course, go on and on. Instead, I'll send you my best New Year wishes and my hope that you'll stay with me for "2001: A Cyberspace Odyssey." Cordially, Lois C.
Ambash, Editor IN THE MEDIA Documentary
filmmaker Ken Burns, whose credits include the PBS classics The Civil
War and Baseball, has produced and directed a major new series
on "America's greatest cultural achievement" -- jazz. The ten-part series
will be broadcast on public television stations beginning January 8, 2001.
Access previous issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com) to search by keywords. INFORMATICON How to Care for Technology "There's parental pressure now to have a computer in every classroom, maybe for every student. That's great, but we ought to have a poet in every classroom, too. That's my metaphor. Most of our energy and money are going to the computer, and we're robbing the poet. We're taking it from music and art. But the purpose of education is to learn how to learn. When the calculator came in, kids became weaker in multiplication. With spelling and grammar checking on computers, generations of kids could fail to grasp the rules of their mother tongue. I love technology, but I care for it by being critical -- and realistic. John Naisbitt,
futurist and author Cyberspeak
Examples of convergence include the use of cell phones to access the Internet, cable boxes to access movies on demand, and Palm devices to take digital photos. Daly and Smith's definition focuses on how and why people use certain media technologies, and why they ignore or abandon others. According to the authors, the word "intentional" is the most controversial part of their definition. "Intent" emphasizes the competitive elements inherent in media convergence, the "Darwinian process of natural selection" by which consumer behavior change determines the rate of adoption and the life span of various technologies. Source: Clickz.com (www.clickz.com), 12/11/00
SITE OF
THE DAY Statistics Galore, and More The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) collects and disseminates information about US and international trends in population and health. The PRB web site is a treasure trove of data -- in both statistical and narrative form -- on topics ranging from the role of North American fathers in childrearing to ignorance of AIDS among the majority of women in India.The site is attractive and well-designed, despite its serious mission and scholarly nature. Its structure invites exploration and its features are user-friendly. The Glossary, for example, offers clear definitions of statistical and economic population terms that might otherwise be obscure. Definitions are available in Spanish and French, as well as English. The World Population Writers Forum, billed as a resource for journalists, has numerous links to population experts, sites, and journals. "Quickfacts" offers concise synopses of recent population and health data, with links to press releases and research studies. To visit the PRB site, go to www.prb.org.
GUEST COLUMNISTS
WANTED! If your column is accepted for publication, it will be permanently posted on the Metaforix web site, along with a link to your e-mail address or URL. As a small token of appreciation, you will also receive a $10 gift certificate toward your next purchase at Amazon.com. To submit
a column for consideration, e-mail it to Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. To
Volume 1, Issue 21 December 19, 2000 |
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